Monday 19 November 1666
Lay pretty long in bed talking with pleasure with my wife, and then up and all the morning at my own chamber fitting some Tangier matters against the afternoon for a meeting. This morning also came Mr. Caesar, and I heard him on the lute very finely, and my boy begins to play well. After dinner I carried and set my wife down at her brother’s, and then to Barkeshire-house, where my Lord Chancellor hath been ever since the fire, but he is not come home yet, so I to Westminster Hall, where the Lords newly up and the Commons still sitting. Here I met with Mr. Robinson, who did give me a printed paper wherein he states his pretence to the post office, and intends to petition the Parliament in it. Thence I to the Bull-head tavern, where I have not been since Mr. Chetwind and the time of our club, and here had six bottles of claret filled, and I sent them to Mrs. Martin, whom I had promised some of my owne, and, having none of my owne, sent her this. Thence to my Lord Chancellor’s, and there Mr. Creed and Gawden, Cholmley, and Sir G. Carteret walking in the Park over against the house. I walked with Sir G. Carteret, who I find displeased with the letter I have drawn and sent in yesterday, finding fault with the account we give of the ill state of the Navy, but I said little, only will justify the truth of it. Here we walked to and again till one dropped away after another, and so I took coach to White Hall, and there visited my Lady Jemimah, at Sir G. Carteret’s lodgings. Here was Sir Thomas Crew, and he told me how hot words grew again to-day in the House of Lords between my Lord Ossory and Ashly, the former saying that something said by the other was said like one of Oliver’s Council. Ashly said that he must give him reparation, or he would take it his owne way. The House therefore did bring my Lord Ossory to confess his fault, and ask pardon for it, as he was also to my Lord Buckingham, for saying that something was not truth that my Lord Buckingham had said. This will render my Lord Ossory very little in a little time. By and by away, and calling my wife went home, and then a little at Sir W. Batten’s to hear news, but nothing, and then home to supper, whither Captain Cocke, half foxed, come and sat with us, and so away, and then we to bed.
24 Annotations
First Reading
CGS • Link
"...
he told me how hot words grew again to-day in the House of Lords between my Lord Ossory and Ashly, the former saying that something said by the other was said like one of Oliver’s Council. Ashly said that he must give him reparation, or he would take it his owne way. The House therefore did bring my Lord Ossory to confess his fault, and ask pardon for it,..."
read all about it , the official [edited?] version [not on tape or cameras]
Ld. Butler,[English version][ Lord Ossory Irish version ] reflecting Words upon the D. of Bucks and Ld. Ashley.
Butler is at bottom of the heap, therefore reprehensible.
No seconds called.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Bradford • Link
Which pithy phrase to admire most in today's entry: "This will render my Lord Ossory very little in a little time" or "Captain Cocke, half foxed"?
A. Hamilton • Link
Here we walked to and again till one dropped away after another
So the courtiers drift away, leaving Sam alone. Is this a sign that his great letter is not going to be well received, as foretold by Carteret?
Miss Ann • Link
Captain Cocke being half foxed - could this mean he's had a bit too much to drink??
Mary • Link
Half-foxed.
Indeed; not wholly drunk but decidedly merry. To put it another way, he's half-seas over.
Mr. Gunning • Link
"Here I met with Mr. Robinson, who did give me a printed paper wherein he states his pretence to the post office, and intends to petition the Parliament in it."
Anyone know what Sam means by 'pretence'?
Half-seas over Mary? Not a phrase I'm familiar with.
andy • Link
pretence - claim for, as I read it.
But then, I was half-foxed myself last night!
Firenze • Link
Half seas over. Three sheets to the wind. It's what comes of splicing the mainbrace.
(Given the Navy ran on rum, its not surprising there are nautical type expressions for drunkeness).
Robert Gertz • Link
"Sam'l..."
"I know, I know..."
"I want him out..." gritted teeth hiss...
"Pepys!!!" hic... "Hows 'bout another bottle of that fine..." hic... "...wine. And tell..." hic... "That lovely lass of yourn to get her...self back here."
"Sam'l...Do you want to end this day very pleasantly? Or do you want to have to make another entry in your journal about us going to bed angry? And when we had such a great start this morning...?"
"Ma'am...Sir..." Jane cuts in, pausing en route to table with wine bottle. "If he offers me to live up to his name once more, I'll have to hurt him."
"Sam'l..."
"I'll deal with him... Very pleasantly?"
"Very pleasantly...And we'll talk French..."
Whoa....
"Cocke, old fellow! I think we'll take the wine with us...A matter or two to discuss between us before we get you home."
Robert Gertz • Link
Now how could I resist...
"Oh, Mr. Pepys...Couldn't you support Henry's petition? He'd make such a fine postmaster..." beaming smile.
Drop of fan...Requiring a gentleman to close to dangerous proximity.
Hmmn...Sam eyes the warmly smiling beauty before him, she waiting his gallant act.
Not as good as she should be...Though my God, pretty damn good.
"Mr. Pepys? My fan?"
Just amazing how she landed it in that way, she must have measured me...Bends over...
Now just a ruble's throw from her...
Hmmn...
"Mr. Pepys..."
"Mrs. Robinson...You are trying to seduce me."
classicist • Link
'half-foxed'--or, in the words of Edward Bury ('England's Bane, or, The Deadly Danger of Drunkeness Described' 1677) 'yonder goes a Toss-pot, a Swill-bowl, a Drunken Swine, a Belly-god, do you see how he reels?'
CGS • Link
My take, maybe a little inebriated, enough to out-wit or is still cunning enough to trap the unwary where as foxed is fully in his cups..
half a mow [moment] there be no half- foxed in the OED
half -ass -ape -baked ....-cock... -ebb...-horse...-man....-mast....-niece...-sword ...-word...
Half-
half-afraid, -awake, -blind, -crazy, -deaf, -drunk, -full, -human, -learned, -mad, -open, -raw, -ripe, -savage, -true; half-armed, -ashamed, -bent, -buried, -cured, -disposed, -done, -dressed, -eaten, -educated, -finished, -formed, -hidden, -opened, -roasted, -ruined, etc., etc. With adjs. expressing shape, it implies the form of half the figure, as half-cordate, -sagittate, -terete.
foxed, ppl. a.
In senses of the vb.
1. Intoxicated, drunk, stupefied.
1611 [see COLUMBERED].
1673 SHADWELL Epsom Wells IV. Wks. 1720 II. 248 Udsooks, I begin to be fox'd.
1896 Q. Rev. Jan. 16 Will Symons had often seen him ‘foxed’ amid the most undignified surroundings.
1611
[see COLUMBERED
Derivation and meaning uncertain: appar., like fox, a cant term for ‘drunk’.
1611 BARRY Ram Alley IV. i. in Hazl. Dodsley X. 335 They will bib hard; they will be fine sunburnt, Sufficient fox'd or columber'd, now and then.
].
1673 SHADWELL Epsom Wells IV. Wks. 1720 II. 248 Udsooks, I begin to be fox'd.
1896 Q. Rev. Jan. 16 Will Symons had often seen him ‘foxed’ amid the most undignified surroundings.
2. Trimmed with fox-fur. In quot. punningly.
1609 W. M. Man in Moone (1849) 26 His gowne is throughly foxt, yet he is sober.
--------------------------------------
to fox
2. a. trans. To intoxicate, befuddle. Also (?nonce-use), to redden (one's nose) with drinking. 1611
...
1660 PEPYS Diary 26 Oct., The last of whom I did almost fox with Margate ale.
...
d. intr. To get drunk. Obs.
1649 LOVELACE Lucasta (1864) 8 The humble tenant, that does bring A chicke or egges..Is tane into the buttry, and does fox Equall with him that gave a stalled oxe.
?????also cunning too
Terry Foreman • Link
On land "foxed" and "merry" -- grog at sea
"Alcohol was an accepted and at times necessary complement to work in preindustrial England. It enabled laborers to endure the hardship of performing manual labor for 12 or more hours a day, and additionally enabled them to endure extremes of heat and cold. Employers' attitudes toward drinking on the job tended to vary according to the availability of labor: when it was scarce, as it was from the second half of the fourteenth century until the end of the Middle Ages, employers had no choice but to tolerate fairly heavy drinking both on and off the job; when labor was plentiful, as it was throughout the Tudor and Stuart periods, employers sought to control recreational drinking, while continuing to tolerate strictly occupational drinking."
"Good Help is Hard to Find: A Few Comments About Alcohol and Work in Preindustrial England" by Jessica Warner *Addiction Research & Theory* 1995, Vol. 2, No. 3, Pages 259-269 http://informahealthcare.com/doi/…
Rex Gordon • Link
"Pretence" to the Post Office ...
I think it means that he desires the position, just as one might be a "Pretender" to the throne.
Rex Gordon • Link
Half seas over ...
I hadn't seen this expression before, either, Mr. G. But isn't it delightfully descriptive? Here's a link to a nice little essay that answers the question, "Which is worse, half seas over or three sheets to the wind?"
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/i…
Michael Robinson • Link
" ... whither Captain Cocke, half foxed, come and sat with us, ..."
Purcell, Z268, "Pox on you ... can not I belch and fart ..."
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCo…
"Here, I intend to display Henry Purcell's complete works. As many videos as possible will show the contemporary published score. Most of the others will show a modern score, deprived of its bass realization."
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"Thence I to the Bull-head tavern, where I have not been since Mr. Chetwind and the time of our club,"
L&M: A weekly meeting, mostly of government clerks, held in the 1650s
and early 1660s when Pepys was an Exchequer clerk and lived in Axe Yard, Westminster. The visits to the Bull-Head tavern Pepys record in the Diary.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Pepys's last recorded visit there:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
"Here I met with Mr. Robinson, who did give me a printed paper wherein he states his pretence to the post office, and intends to petition the Parliament in it."
The case and title of Henry Robinson of London esq unto a deputation and management of both the letter-offices, together with the profits thereunto belonging, deriv'd from the right honourable Charls Lord Stanhop, unto Endymion Porter esq. deceased, and George Porter esq. his son, and from them unto the said Henry Robinson, as it was represented unto the convention sitting at the time of his Majesties happy restoration, which afterwards settled the same upon his Majesty, without any consideration unto the said H. Robinson for the claim and improvement of the said offices from about 3000l per annum to about 30000l per annum, to the undoing the said H. Robinson, his wife and children.
Robinson, Henry, 1605?-1664?
[London: s.n., 1663?]
[Early English Books Online)
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo…
Terry Foreman • Link
"The House therefore did bring my Lord Ossory to confess his fault, and ask pardon for it, as he was also to my Lord Buckingham, for saying that something was not truth that my Lord Buckingham had said."
L&M: In the debate on the bill prohibiting the the import of Irish cayyle this day, Ossory was twice reprehended by the House on these two counts. He had used 'indecent Expression to the Duke of Bucks' (aLJ, xiii, 42-2) in the course of defending Irish interests (his father, Ormond, was Lord Lieutenant) against Buckingham's attacks. Cf. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
San Diego Sarah • Link
Henry Robinson’s brief biography correctly says that the profit generated by the patent for the Post Office originally went to the Rt. Hon. Charles, Lord Stanhope, who assigned the patent to King Charles I’s friend, Endymion Porter, Esq. and his son, Lt. Gen. George Porter, who subsequently fought on both sides of the Civil Wars. (After the Restoration George Porter became a Gent. of the Bedchamber to Queen Catherine. He dies in the 1680’s, with no mention of the post office in any of his bios. that I’ve read).
This is a simplified version of what happened, and misses out several major contributors to the development of the post office including a Mr. Thurloe. If you’re interested, go to http://www.gbps.org.uk/informatio… , starting on page 35.
At the Restoration all of the previous office holders or their heirs reappear claiming the same position. Henry Bishop happened to be the current Parliamentary office holder, and Charles II appointed him the first Postmaster General for seven years “at a rent of” 21,500l. a year. And in January 1661 PMG Bishop developed the first handstamp for use by Post Offices to show when letters were received into their offices. Mr. Bishop was corrupt and hated, and a clerk, Mr. Hicks, under O’Neile ran things until the Post Office was taken over by Lord Arlington in 1667.
Henry Robinson's claim comes from the time of the Porters. Sadly THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH POST OFFICE by J. C. HEMMEON, Ph.D., published by CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY in 1912 (linked above) doesn't explain it any further than that.
My guess is that the Commons is looking for ways to make up Charles II’s loss of income from giving up the Hearth/Chimney Tax to fund the war effort (see 15 October, 1666 https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… ). The Post Office may be part of that revenue stream? I don’t know that – we shall see.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Here we walked to and again till one dropped away after another, and so I took coach ..."
'So the courtiers drift away, leaving Sam alone. Is this a sign that his great letter is not going to be well received, as foretold by Carteret?'
This group was probably discussing the situation in Tangier, for which Pepys prepared yesterday. They drifted away because there is no money to solve the problems, so much as they want to do things, reality dictates that they cannot. And it's November in London ... dark and windy and cold by 3 p.m.-ish. That hasn't changed in the last 350 years.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Of course, it was this morning that he prepared for the Tangier meeting. Sorry.
Elisabeth • Link
“Here had six bottles of claret filled, and I sent them to Mrs. Martin, whom I had promised some of my owne, and, having none of my owne, sent her this.”
On July 7, 1665, Sam noted that he had two tierces of claret (about 84 gallons). Where has it all gone?
John G • Link
Something very strange here.
About two thirds down the diary there is a mention of 'Lord Ossory' and 'Ashly'.
The notes for both seem to have the same picture for both men. A search of Wikipedia also shows the same pictures for both men, unless they are lost identical twins. Some further internet search shows different pictures but I unfortunately do not have the time to verify who is who correctly.
Hope someone can follow up on this research.